Abstract
Eugenol, as the main component in clove, has neuroprotective abilities, including its effect to learning memory of mice. However, there is no evidence showing whether eugenol can expand the growth of dendrites in the brain. The objective of this research was to examine the effects of eugenol towards dendritic complexity of neurons, neurogenesis, and memory performance in hippocampus. A total of 21 mice were divided into three groups; (i) mice were administered 30 mg/kg bw eugenol orally, (ii) mice were administered 100 mg/kg bw eugenol orally, and (iii) mice were administered distilled water as control. Mice were kept for 30 consecutive days following the standard animal housing. The memory performance was observed through the Y-arm maze alternation, Novel Object Recognition (NOR), and Morris Water Maze (MWM) test. The brain was dissected and stained with FD Rapid Golgi StainingTM kit to observe dendrites in the dentate gyrus (DG) and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) region; and Haematoxylin-Eosin (HE) staining to assess neurogenesis in the DG. Our results showed that eugenol enhanced putative neural stem cells (NPCs) and granular cells (GC) number, and also decrease neuronal cell death in DG (p<0.0001). Eugenol also increased dendritic complexity of neurons in DG region; while in CA1, eugenol has given a positive effect only on the basal area. Eugenol increased spatial and recognition memory in mice, indicated by a higher number of correct alternations and discrimination ratio compared to the control group (p<0.05), although escape latency in MWM did not show significant effect (p>0.05). As analyzed by behavioral tests and Golgi staining of brain tissue, eugenol can increase memory performance, neurogenesis, and dendritic complexity of neurons in the DG and CA1 basal region of brain in mice.
Highlights
Bioprospecting of biologically active compounds from plants has emerged in recent centuries for developing a natural medicine
Golgi staining was quantified to examine the characteristics of dendrites, namely dendritic length, intersections, and maximum dendritic span in the dentate gyrus (DG), and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1)
We found that the maximum dendritic span was not different among the groups in DG (Figure 1c) and apical part of CA1 (p>0.05; one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA); Figure 1d), we have noticed a statistically different results in basal part of CA1 (p
Summary
Bioprospecting of biologically active compounds from plants has emerged in recent centuries for developing a natural medicine. Numerous medicinal plants have been screened both in vitro and in vivo for investigating new potential drugs[1]. Studies have suggested that traditional herbs are able to prevent or treat health problems[2]. One of the plants that possess many pharmacological properties is clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.). Clove is a member of Myrtaceae family, which originates from the Maluku islands, Indonesia. Cloves oils are mainly composed of eugenol (4-allyl2-methoxyphenol; 72-90%), which is an active compound that responsible for the clove’s aroma[3]
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